Page and Document Settings

Most page and document settings options can be found in the "Page" and "Document" tabs of the context pane. Click on the white background of a page to pull up the Page tab and click on the grey canvas background to open the Document tab. These tabs are similar, but while changes made in the Page tab will only be applied to the selected page, those made in the Document tab will affect every page in the document.

Underneath the size and orientation settings you will find the option to add a header or footer to your document. This feature must be applied to a document as a whole, so you will not see it if you are in the Page tab.

If you check the box next to "Header" or "Footer," a text box will be added to the top or bottom of every page of your document. The text box’s outline will display in blue when you hover over it and turn green if you double-click on it, indicating that it is in editing mode.

You can adjust the header or footer's distance from the top/bottom of your document by editing the values in the "From top" or "From bottom" text boxes.

If you want different header/footer settings for different pages, you can select "First page is different" or "Left and right pages are different."

When a header or footer is in editing mode, you can type into it or auto-fill it with linked content from the "Insert" tab of the menu bar. See these content options below.

If you select “Page Number,” each page of your document will be populated with the corresponding page number. If you want your page numbers to begin on the second page of your document, make sure to enable "First page is different" in the context pane.

To change the background of your page or document, click the box in the "Background" section of the context pane and select a color from the swatches displayed or pick a new one using the color picker. For more information, see Edit Shape Fill.

Change the background's opacity by moving the blue dot horizontally across the "Opacity" bar or by typing a percentage into the box on its right.

In lieu of a solid color, you can create a linear or radial gradient or upload an image to use as your page/document background. See Edit Shape Fill and Edit Image Fill to learn more about these options.

At the bottom of the Page tab of the context pane is a feature called "Page Lock," which you can also find by navigating to the “Page” tab of the menu bar or by right-clicking on a page thumbnail on the left of your canvas. Read on to learn about the different page lock options.

Page Lock: Lock down a page entirely so that edits cannot be made to its content or layout and so that it cannot be deleted, duplicated or copied. Enabling this feature will automatically enable all of the options described below, but you can deselect these options individually to turn them off. Page Cannot be Deleted: Prevent a page from being deleted. Prevent Adding Content: Prevent any new content from being added to a page. Lock Properties and Settings: Lock down all features of a page besides content, including size and orientation, margins, and background.

Take advantage of grid lines in Lucidpress to facilitate the neat arragement of objects. To add grid lines to the canvas, navigate to View > Grid and select “Show Grid” in the menu bar. You can also enable “Snap to Grid” to force objects to adhere to grid lines when you move them around on the canvas.

Guides are another great tool for object alignment. To add a guide to your document, right-click on the canvas and select “Create Vertical Guide” or “Create Horizontal Guide.”

Move these guides across the canvas by clicking and dragging or enable “Lock Guides” to prevent further movement. If you navigate to View > Guides in the menu bar, you will also find options to show/hide, snap objects to, and clear guides.

Show Locking Restrictions: When this is enabled, objects that contain locking restrictions will be marked with a yellow or red outline and lock icon. When this feature is disabled, you must select an object to see these markings.

Show Off-page Content: When this is enabled, any content that is dragged off a page of your document will extend into the grey background. Otherwise, the content will be hidden.

Page Thumbnails: Enable this option to pull up a display of your document’s page thumbnails on the left of the canvas. You can also show page thumbnails by clicking on the arrow at the top left of the editor.

Context Pane: Enable this option to display the context pane on the right of the canvas. Show Rulers: Enable this option to display rulers on the top and left side of the editor.

Use WebGL: WebGL is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D computer graphics and 2D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. Essentially, it uses your graphics card instead of plug-ins, and if you have a great graphics card, it can increase the speed of the tool by more than 120%. However, it does not have any other benefits, and it can really mess up your document if your graphics card isn't compatible. If elements of your document are appearing strange in the editor, try turning this feature off.